Once More Into the Breach
by KevinMKelly
Summary: The War Doctor, seen through the eyes of a young Time Lord


**Once More into the Breach**

 **TITLE: Once more into the Breach**

 **AUTHOR: Kevin McNeil Kelly**

 **CHARACTER: THE WAR DOCTOR**

 **RATING: U**

 **WORD COUNT: 1898 words**

 **DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the Doctor Who characters, they belong to the BBC**

"It's not working!"

"Time Lords never panic!"

"The Intervention is not working! The hole in the fabric of space/time is growing bigger! The Void is about to swallow all of time and space! Seems like a good time to start panicking, to me." Loth said. He had never been off world in his life and had joined the military to see a bit of the Universe. The atrocities of the Time War had come as a shock.

"Gallifrey will work something out. Keep monitoring the power flows and wait," Goll, Grand Monitor of the 43rd Time Fleet, had never been off-world before either, but ten thousand years of being part of the system had given her an unshakeable confidence in the Time Lords.

The latest time capsules did not have consoles; information was fed directly into the crews' brains through the telepathic circuits and commands given in the same way. Goll could see in her mind's eye a universe of galaxies swirling around her and before her the growing maw that was sucking reality out into the void between dimensions.

"Stop doing that, please. I'm trying to concentrate," Goll scolded Loth. She had tried to bring in a rule banning Time Lords below the age of eighty from serving in the time fleet but had failed.

"Stop doing what? " Loth asked. He had not even had his first regeneration yet and was not handling his imminent demise as bravely as he'd always imagined he would. "Of course," he told himself. "The difference is, this demise will be permanent."

"Stop making that wheezing noise," Goll demanded.

"I'm not making a wheezing noise….oh… no…." Loth looked around and watched a tall blue box fade into reality. It had "police" printed across the top, just as the stories said. "Just when I thought things couldn't get worse. We are so dead."

"Silly man put the shields up!"

"The shields are up! Of course, the shields are up! We are hovering next to a hole in time and space-why would I not have the shields up!" Loth demanded. But he checked anyway. All the security systems designed to stop a time capsule materialising inside another time capsule were being ignored by the TARDIS.

The blue double doors were thrown open, and a small man with grey temples and a large, black moustache ran out, dragging a large, thick cable and waving a small metal tube around. He even wore the empty bandolier strapped across his chest, as the stories said. Loth raised his hands and waited for death.

"Shift."

"What?" Loth asked.

"Shift," the legend said unto Loth. "I need into that panel."

Loth shuffled away while keeping his hands raised.

"You cannot materialise a time capsule inside a time capsule," Goll shouted.

"Just did," the man pointed out as he removed a panel and continued to wave the metal pipe around. Loth wished he could remember what it was called? It made a funny little whirring noise. It featured a lot in the stories he'd heard.

Goll pulled a blaster from her belt.

"Stop what you're doing Doctor, and surrender. We are taking you back to Gallifrey to stand trial."

"Been there, done that and lost the tee shirt," the man said as he began hooking wires from the cable into Loth's time capsule.

"You see this?" Goll waved the gun. She had practised with it enough to hit what she aimed at, even though this particular model did not have sights. "I will shoot you if I have to."

"You see this?" The man waved the metal pipe, and Loth noticed one end glowing red. "Sonic Screwdriver… Just took the inside of your blaster apart. And don't call me The Doctor, I'm not him anymore. Just a Warrior trying to stop you lot from doing any more damage to the universe."

Goll pulled the trigger and when nothing happened, shook it and heard a rattling sound, as if lots of tiny parts had come loose inside the casing.

The Warrior pulled away several more panels, dropping them on the floor as he went.

"I hate these new designs- they move stuff around for no good reason," he muttered.

"Wh-what are you looking for?" Loth asked.

"The Eighth Dimensional Coupling," the not-Doctor-but-still-terrifying man said. Loth pointed to a panel.

"It's over there; it gets a better input from the Trans Continuation Epoch."

"Rubbish," the man said as he pulled the panel away and began to hook in some of the wires spilling from the end of his cable.

"We didn't do this!" Goll yelled. "The Daleks tried to blow up a whole galaxy with a reality bomb. We stopped them!"

"Using time as a weapon, which mixed with the bomb's energies and blew a hole in the fabric of reality you can't fix!"

"At least we have tried! Gallifrey has been –"

"-Getting nowhere." The Warrior finished for her.

"Never the less- this is a warship full of soldiers. You must stop what you are doing, and return with us to Gallifrey," Goll repeated angrily.

"After what you lot just did, I'd only return to Gallifrey to blow the place up," the Warrior muttered not quite under his breath.

"You will come now. I pressed the alarm, the soldiers are coming- surrender now, and the court may be merciful."

The Warrior strode passed Goll, pushed the console room door open, marched out and walked back into the room from his TARDIS.

"No one can enter this room while my TARDIS is inside your time capsule," the moustache may have been grinning evilly.

"Why did you do this?" Goll wailed. She had the long sleeves; she had the high collar of authority, and she could not understand why this horrible man would not do what he was told.

"Because I needed to move your ship into the breach and I didn't think you'd volunteer your services." The Warrior pulled a closet door open, grabbed Goll, pushed her in and fused the lock with the Sonic Screwdriver. Then he turned to Loth.

"You're the pilot, right?"

"He only comes up to my chin," Loth thought. "I could overpower him. I'd be famous." Then he concentrated on the sensor feeds and saw that his ship and the TARDIS were indeed right on the edge of existence. The fabric of reality was flowing around them and away into the Void.

"Yes?" He said out loud. His Adam's apple wobbled nervously.

"Good. When I shout "now" open her up and give her all she's got," the Warrior said as he hurried back to the TARDIS.

"Pardon?"

The Warrior turned, one foot inside his TARDIS and took a breath and let it out slowly. He realised he was looking at the youngest Time Lord he'd met in a very long time.

"When I shout now," he said slowly and distinctly, "activate your time capsule's engines and turn the power up full. I'll do the rest from my TARDIS."

"If I'm your prisoner, why would I help you?" Loth asked, trying to live up to his image of himself as the hero.

"Because if you don't, all of time and space will be sucked into the Void, and we'll all have never existed," the Warrior said. "That's one paradox I'd prefer to avoid."

"Oh. You're sure this will work?"

"Yes, I'm always sure. Of everything." The moustache grinned, and the Warrior strode into the TARDIS.

"Now!" He shouted. The TARDIS made a boom noise, and the ancient engines began wheezing as Loth started his time capsule engines and pushed them up to full power with a thought. "Funny thing," he would say later. "It seemed like we stayed still and everything else moved. The two time capsules locked together created a still point, and the engines working in tandem pulled everything else back out of the Void. That allowed Gallifrey to close the hole and heal it."

In his cups, he also admitted, "worst nineteen hours of my life, everything was shaking, and the ship felt as if it was going to come apart at any second. It was about then I decided to get some seats for the thing- my feet were killing me."

Loth ignored the shouting and banging coming from the closet and tried not to think about the trouble he would be in when Gol got out.

The Warrior made him some tea and gave him a talk about some new career paths he might want to try.

Finally, the ship threw him around and reached a point where Loth was sure it was coming apart; sometime after that the noise stopped; the Warrior strode into the console room and shouted: "right! Shut everything down!"

Loth throttled back the engines and turned them off. In the silence, he could hear his hearts beating and felt glad to be alive. He ignored the thumping coming from the closet.

"Is that it? Are we going to live?" he wondered allowed

"Yes, that's the hole fixed. Try not to do it again," the Warrior said, as he yanked the wiring out of the panels and rolled the cable around his forearm.

"Hey be careful, you could damage something carrying on like that," Loth complained.

"Have you given her a name yet?" The Warrior asked as he reached the door of the TARDIS.

"No, they told me not to at the academy."

"A time capsule without a name is just a thing. Give her a name, and she'll never let you down," was the last thing he said before he patted the blue box, closed the TARDIS door and dematerialised.

The soldiers kicked the doors opened and stormed the console room, mostly for the look of the thing, Loth thought. They shot the door open and helped Gol out of the closet.

"You are in so much trouble mister," she began.

"I am?"

"Yes- you were assisting the enemy. There's a word for that… on the tip of my tongue."

"Conspiring?"

"Yes, that's it, conspiring with the enemy. You will never be allowed near a time capsule again, and I can tell you that," the grand old lady said, as Loth helped her to the door and pushed her gently out. The soldiers followed, milling around in a clearing in some woods.

"Hey, where are we? Why did you land here?"

"Bye," Loth said as he closed the doors.

"You can't just leave me here!"

"Time Lords don't panic, remember?" Loth reminded her.

Loth locked the doors and dematerialised Shasta. It was his granny's name, and he'd liked his granny. The ship tumbled through the time tracks, while Loth did some thinking. He had fought in the Time War, had helped save the universe, and now he was off to see some of it.

row


End file.
